July 05, 2012

Subaru Notes from Road America

Even though a spin and contact caused by fluids from another car's blown engine prematurely ended Subaru Road Racing Team's day in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Road America, a number of Subaru-related encounters helped to perk up the weekend. (See Road America gallery here.)

I met the owner of a very clean 2002 WRX who was camping in the Carousel. It was one of the earliest models to hit American shores. The owner learned about the WRX coming to the United States from a tour put on by Subaru at that time, and then he followed up by playing video games that featured the WRX. This was one of the ways that customers learned about the WRX. We refer to this phenomenon in an article about video games in the latest issue of the Subaru owner magazine Drive.

Another Subaru owner in the same camping area wishes he still had his first one. He's owned seven of them. His current family Subaru is approximately 10 years old and has 170,000 miles on the odometer. He wants to get a new one so he can leave his fishing equipment in the one he has (which he'll keep).

A WRX STI owner (T REX plates) who works at Road America stopped me to ask if the magazine still had the Drive Performance WRX. He wanted to see the performance parts and accessories on the car so that he could decide which ones he would put on his. I remembered his email to the magazine, which was sent just a couple days after we turned in the car. Timing is everything.

A BRZ in the Subaru parking area had a #35 and Subaru Road Racing Team on its sides. Hmmm.